Great Britain's men's curling team will go for gold at the Winter Olympics on Friday after beating Sweden 6-5 in a compelling semi-final in Sochi and which had the most dramatic of endings.

After the GB women's team had lost to Canada in their last-four game at the Ice Cube earlier in the day, the pressure moved on to David Murdoch's all-Scottish rink to take the final step and he came through with flying colours.

And by winning with his final shot, Murdoch guaranteed that GB would at least match their Winter Olympic medal haul from Garmisch 1936 – one gold, one silver, one bronze.

GB play Canada in the final after Brad Jacobs' rink beat China 10-6 in the other semi-final and on this form they will fancy their chances.

The Swedish skip Niklas Edin made the first mistake of the game in the second end, too strong with his final shot which gave GB a steal of one point to put them ahead.

However, the Swedes responded immediately with two and Murdoch had levelled by the halfway point but having passed the hammer – the final throw of the end – to the world champions.

Another mistake by Edin with his last throw in the sixth end – he went for a game-changing three instead of the easier one and ended up handing a point to GB – had Murdoch's side back in front again.

Edin again erred in the seventh when his penultimate stone left him only able to level and that suggested that things had turned in GB's favour. They forged ahead by one in the eighth.

Sweden grabbed a two in the ninth to go 5-4 up to set up a tense final end with Edin's last throw, slack again, leaving Murdoch a chance for glory by taking a two.

The GB skip, who had a thrilling last-stone win in the tie-break against Norway, was once again bang on target to the cheers of the small knot of British fans.